Check out this creepy, improbable Vichy-nerd screed from someone who claims to have seized control over the Internet at the behest of the RIAA:
It took us about a month to develop the complex hydra, and another month to
bring it up to the standards of excellence that the RIAA demanded of us. In
the end, we submitted them what is perhaps the most sophisticated tool for
compromising millions of computers in moments.Our system works by first infecting a single host. It then fingerprints a
connecting host on the p2p network via passive traffic analysis, and
determines what the best possible method of infection for that host would
be. Then, the proper search results are sent back to the “victim” (not the
hard-working artists who p2p technology rapes, and the RIAA protects). The
user will then (hopefully) download the infected media file off the RIAA
server, and later play it on their own machine.When the player is exploited, a few things happen. First, all p2p-serving
software on the machine is infected, which will allow it to infect other
hosts on the p2p network. Next, all media on the machine is cataloged, and
the full list is sent back to the RIAA headquarters (through specially
crafted requests over the p2p networks), where it is added to their records
and stored until a later time, when it can be used as evidence in criminal
proceedings against those criminals who think it’s OK to break the law.Our software worked better than even we hoped, and current reports indicate
that nearly 95% of all p2p-participating hosts are now infected with the
software that we developed for the RIAA.
(Thanks, Pat!)